PORTIONS OF PARADISE- VANUATU.

[Aidwatch] New AID/WATCH DVD on Melanesian land rights and development

When Vanuatu was granted Independence from the British and French in 1980, indigenous, Ni-Vanuatu landowners were of the view that the large portions of land taken by colonial powers would be handed back to them. Thirty one years on, much of the land still remains under British titles or “French Claims.” And now a new threat is emerging. Australia’s aggressive foreign policies played out through an AusAid supported land reform program is fueling a land grab by Australian owned real estate companies based in Vanuatu. While reforms may be seen as a path to economic development, the Ni-Vanuatu are being robbed of their traditional rights to fish, hunt and live on what was once their ancestral land. Critics of the land reform program point out that a there is an increasing undercurrent of dissatisfaction among the younger generation who no longer have access to the resources that their parents once had.